Game 81: Blazers 103, Thunder 95

Box Score

Sometimes it feels good to put a team in their place.

The Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City Thunder squad has been getting a ton of praise this year for a great season and a playoff birth. They're ahead of schedule and eerily similar to the Portland Trail Blazers of a year ago.

Fortunately for them, they've had no injuries, no adversity, and continue to catch teams by surprise.

Portland had to put a stop to that, at least for tonight and the end of this season. This crucial victory over Oklahoma City has sealed the deal for Portland, guaranteeing they will not play the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round.

This game was about as up and down as they come for Portland.

Without Brandon Roy, who was out with a knee injury for the entire game, a different plan of attack was needed to take down the Thunder. Everything started out fine as Andre Miller attacked Oklahoma City's interior defense and Marcus Camby stretched everyone out by hitting jumper after jumper.

It felt pretty good for about eight minutes but then Oklahoma City started exploiting Portland's defense in the paint and quickly took a first quarter lead.

Unfortunately that continued as Oklahoma City was aggressive and earning trip after trip to the free throw line. Kevin Durant shot nine free throws before half time. Obviously Kevin Garnett's rant about Durant was not without some truth. Durant already gets more calls than Kobe Bryant.

Portland eventually fought back to within eight points at half time, but a defensive adjustment would be needed to win this game.

The second half was like a whole new game.

Portland came right out and started cutting and slashing on offense while locking up Durant on defense. A quick 8-0 run got them right back in the game and really just a stellar third quarter overall to make this contest worth watching again.

Portland ended up with a two point lead after three quarters and finally had a battle on their hands.

The fourth quarter was back and forth until Portland started to really capitalize on Oklahoma City's mistakes. The Thunder showed their youth with some costly turnovers and poor decisions.

Portland on the other hand went the entire second half without a turnover. It was a remarkable transformation in the second half, one that was much needed.

Eventually, even after a Nick Collison take down of LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers settled into their 50th victory as they got their foul calls down the stretch. All in all, it was a mini-statement game.

Portland is still better than most teams in the West, the question on Saturday will be whether they can compete with Utah or Denver as the playoffs begin.

The real hero in this game had to be Camby. The guy was simply incredible.

From start to finish, whether it was jumpshots, put backs, defense, rebounding, hustle, whatever it was, Camby was doing it. He finished this game with a ridiculous 30 points, 13 rebounds, and three assists. Spectacular when you consider he is almost never called on to score. He out hustled the Thunder big men all night long and it paid dividends down the stretch. Camby has been one of the best acquisitions in recent Blazer history, and as I said earlier, with Brandon out Camby is the only reason I still have hope in the playoffs.

I also can't forget about the contributions of Andre Miller.

He tore up the Thunder interior defense early on and basically picked his spots throughout the game, finishing with 22 points, four rebounds, seven assists, and four steals.

Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Martell Webster also filled important roles on both ends of the court. This was a high energy team win, one that should help us in the playoffs.

The Blazers have one game remaining to assure the sixth seed in the West. A truly remarkable feat considering the tumultuous year the organization has had.

The Blazers also reached 50 wins tonight which was nothing short of impossible just a few months ago. I'm proud of the team for how hard they've worked to keep it all together.

I will be attending the season finale in person on Wednesday so expect a stellar recap of the game from Sophia.

Go Blazers!